Does anyone have any information regarding this proposal?. I thought it was a " poison pill" amendment to the Credit Card Reform legislation, which passed.
Thanks
Mark
Bi-Partisan Congressional Majority Moves To Restore Second Amendment in National Parks
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Fairfax, Va. ? Today NRA-backed legislation to restore the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens in national parks and wildlife refuges passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 279-147, including 105 democrats. This was a major repudiation of the gun control community’s anti self-defense agenda.
The current Department of Interior (DOI) regulations were amended by the Bush Administration in 2008, allowing law-abiding citizens to defend themselves by carrying a concealed firearm in national parks and wildlife refuges. However, early this year, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. granted anti-gun plaintiffs a preliminary injunction against implementation of the new rule. The NRA has been working for the past several years in the regulatory, legal, and legislative arenas to achieve this policy change.
?It has been an NRA priority to change the old, outdated rule, and we are pleased that Congress passed this critical legislation,? said Chris W. Cox, NRA?s chief lobbyist. ?This step brings clarity and uniformity for law-abiding gun owners visiting our national parks and wildlife refuges. NRA will continue to pursue every avenue to defend the American people?s right of self-defense.?
The National Park Service?s recent report revealed that 11 murders, 35 rapes, 61 robberies and 261 aggravated assaults occurred on parklands in 2006. Our parks also contain hidden methamphetamine labs, marijuana fields and illegal drug and illegal alien smuggling routes. In addition to these dangers and potential attacks from human predators, park visitors have to consider attacks from animal predators. Between April and December 2007 there were at least a dozen grizzly bear attacks reported by park visitors. Today, 31 states allow the carrying of firearms in state parks ? all with safe and satisfactory results.
This bill provides consistency across our nation?s federal lands and puts an end to the patchwork of regulations that govern different lands managed by different federal agencies. In the past, only Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands allowed the carrying of firearms, while National Parks and Wildlife Refuges did not.
In 1982, only six states allowed citizens to carry handguns for self-defense. Currently, 48 states have some process in place for issuing licenses or permits to allow law-abiding citizens to carry firearms for self-defense. The NRA has long held that the regulations needed to be updated to reflect this change.
This move restores the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms for lawful purposes on most DOI lands and makes federal law consistent with the state law in which these lands are located.
?This common-sense measure, offered by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), gives law-abiding gun owners the option of protecting themselves in our federal parks and refuges. We appreciate the efforts and leadership of Senators Max Baucus (D-MT), Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Representative Doc Hastings (R-WA) in ensuring a legislative remedy to amend out-of-date regulations and restore the Second Amendment rights of American gun owners,? concluded Cox.
-NRA-
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen?s organization. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military.
Hope this tells you what you wanted to know
Eric
Life Member NRA
Hey there Eric,
Thank you for your info/post. FINALLY a step in the/a right direction.
Mark
The surprising part is the DC court granting the injunction. It is the Heller decision from this past July which makes any other outcome all but impossible. And that was Heller vs DC…
Was shocked and saddened when I posted about the Ninth Circuit Court incorporating Heller in another lawsuit and got jumped by a whole bunch of other posters for being a “gun freak.” It was a big surprise because the Ninth is notably anti-gun historically and the ruling is now the law, but they called me an instigator…
If they only knew what I can do… 
art looking about for tender spots to kick
The Credit Card bill hit Obama’s desk intact and he signed it today. The provisions take effect in 9 months, so the handgun rules changes probably do officially at that point. I have not seen the exact language to state that for certain.
The new rules are better for pro-gun folks than GWB’s version because the rules of each individual state are now going to apply. Under Bush’s rule the firearms had to be concealed… How would the bears know you were armed?
It has always been incredibly impractical to enter bear country unarmed…
art
Hap, that could get interesting in, say, Yellowstone, which is in three states…
The local national park here still has a sign up saying no firearms. Or it did a couple weeks ago.
Good point, but at least in the West many states are more similar to each other than say PA, NY and NJ…
The new rule is definitely better - allowing the rules of the states to apply. Helps eliminate the ‘patchwork’ problem of different laws in different places. However, note that most states have provisions in their concealed carry laws that allow for prohibiting guns in many locations. So depending on the state, you may or may not be allowed to carry loaded weapons into state parks.
Here is a good website for those of us that carry firearms:
Click on the state to read their laws.
http://opencarry.org/maps.html
Be certain to check out their home page too:
You can take guns anywhere. But soon you won’t be able to purchase ammo if this passes. Jim
Ammo-less Firearms Alert
Nobody can sell any ammunition after June 30, 2009
It has already started…
Ammunition Accountability Legislation
Remember how Obama said that he wasn’t going to take your guns?
Well, it seems that his allies in the anti-gun world have no problem with taking your ammo!
The bill 20 that is being pushed in 18 states (including Illinois and Indiana ) requires all ammunition to be encoded by the manufacture a data base of all ammunition sales. So they will know how much you buy and what calibers.
Nobody can sell any ammunition after June 30, 2009 unless the ammunition is coded.
Any privately held un coded ammunition must be destroyed by July 1, 2011. (Including hand loaded ammo.)
They will also charge a …05 cent tax on every round so every box of ammo you buy will go up at least $2.50 or more!
If they can deprive you of ammo they do not need to take your gun!
This legislation is currently pending in 18 states:
Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri,
New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington .
Send to your friends in these states
AND
fight to dissolve this BILL!!
To find more about the anti-gun group that is sponsoring this legislation and the
specific legislation for each state, go to:
http://ammunitionaccountability.org/Legislation.htm
I’d love to have the use of one. I ride a dirt bike way deep in National Forests and have come upon a brown bear or twelve…
The encounter has always been good but it only takes one bad one.
I’d also have liked to have taken care of a sheep herder’s BIG white dog one day ;)…while he laughed at me as the dog had me ‘cornered’.
Ammo is already harder to find. Everyone (at least here in Texas) ran out and bought as much ammo as they could once Obama was elected for fear of not being able to get some later.
As a result it has also climbed in price, now another $2.50 or so on top of that? It does appear that we can all have our guns, but with nothing to load in them, what good are they.
Cal E. Batis
That is why I reload though I hear they are trying to stop this also.
Byron, that has been something I have always been afraid of.
Cal E. Batis
Senate Bill SB-2099
Senate Bill SB-2099 will require us to put on our 2009 1040 federal tax form all guns that you have or own. It may require fingerprints and a tax of $50 per gun.
This bill was introduced on Feb… 24. This bill will become public knowledge 30 days after it is voted into law. This is an amendment to the Internal Revenue Act of 1986. This means that the Finance Committee can pass this without the Senate voting on it at all.
The full text of the proposed amendment is on the U.S. Senate homepage, http://www.senate.gov/ You can find the bill by doing a search by the bill number, SB-2099.
You know who to call; I strongly suggest you do. Please send a copy of
this e-mail to every gun owner you know to help STOP this bill!!
My response is BULL#%^&! Is there anything these people will not do??? Here’s a copy of what I just got finished with sending to both Senators and our Congressman. Feel free to use as a template and email, fax or snail mail your’s too!!!
We have got to take back our country before it’s too late.
Dear Congressman xxxxxxx,
As a firm believer in the rights of the law abiding citizens of the United States I am writing you to express my deepest concerns for the continued ad vances being made to restrict and ultimately remove our right to bear arms.
When the attempts by those who are sworn enemies of the Second Amendment to the Constitution are hidden by legislation such as SB-2099 which if my understanding is correct will allow the Internal Revenue Service to become involved in levying taxes on private transfers and ownership of handgun. The IRS involved in firearms ???
Mr. xxxxxxr I am one constituent who is pleading with you to do all you can to defeat this and any other attempt which amounts to a back door approach to firearms restriction. While I realize this is a Senate bill at this time please pledge that you will not support such an effort in the halls of Congress should it reach there in the future.
Historically speaking I would like to point out that firearm restrictions do not negatively affect crime yet the opposite it true. This ages old argument from those who would like to see private ownership of guns come to an end simply does not ?hold water?.
In my mind I would also like to under stand when it was that the Congress, Judiciary and Executive Branches became the ones who control such issues? Does not the 10th Amendment grant powers to the states to regulate and control powers not specifically granted to Congress in the Constitution? When will the elected elite begin to understand they are not a ruling class above the peasant class and stop claiming more and more power?
We are being frustrated more and more Mr. xxxxxxx by our legislative representation. Conservative citizens are being labeled, watched and warned about by our government for reasons unknown other than being opposed to what we see going on. Please buck this dangerous trend and fall back to the will of the people and not paid lobbyists who are obviously representing their special interest paychecks.
Respectfully,
I just tryed a search on the senate web page and got nothing. Do I type into the search box and push go or am I missing somthing?
I’ll certainly write to my guy but really want to have somthing to work with .
Perch
This senate bill came out in 2000 and died in committee, its a shame the rumor wont die as fast as the bill did.
If this were true the it would be all over the NRA website, as well as many other gun sites.
for more information see the following link
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/taxreturns.asp
Eric
Thanks Eric
Sorry for the mis-information
WHOA!!! It has passed, been signed and will become effective Feb 22, 2010. In short the rules of the individual states will apply in the parks. Parks within multiple states like Yellowstone will be a bit touchy if anyone makes a point over it, but expect things to go a lot looser on guns.
The rumors about ammo being over regulated and such will not come to pass. After Heller (SCOTUS DC gun ban case decided last July) the states may take a while to come around, but the Ninth Circuit Court, likely the most liberal of all courts already incorporated the ruling into state laws and it will simply take a little time for the various courts to come around on that.
This is the first link I got when googling the issue. I find it funny CA folks are so concerned about the issue they refuse to report it anything like evenly… FUnny because in Heller the Justices specifically asked for any example anywhere in the World where gun control had coincided with a drop in crime… Not caused, just existed temporally. There were none found and indeed a huge number were delivered showing exactly the opposite effect.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/05/new-law-allows-guns-in-parks.html
"New law allows concealed, loaded guns in national parks
2:16 PM, May 20, 2009
In case you didn’t have a chance to read the fine print to the bill just passed by Congress that put some controls on credit card companies, there is this: A rider allowing visitors to national parks to carry concealed, loaded guns and rifles.
It’s a last-minute Bush administration policy, written by lobbyists for the National Rifle Assn., that was pushed through the Interior Department as President George W. Bush was leaving office.
The rule, now a federal law, allows the carrying of concealed, loaded weapons in national parks and wildlife refuges in states where people are legally allowed to carry concealed arms. Proponents argued that the policy would give weapons owners more clear rules, and essentially allows guns in all but three of the nation’s 391 parks.
The gun rule was criticized by a broad coalition of groups, including law enforcement, park rangers and former Park Service directors. Opponents cited statistics showing that parks are among the safest places in the country and said the presence of guns would create a law enforcement nightmare and might lead to poaching.
Bill Wade, Executive Council chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, said today: "Legislators who voted for this amendment now have to live with the fact that they have, in fact, increased the risk to visitors and employees, as well as the risk to wildlife and some cultural resources. Moreover, they’ve just contributed to diminishing the specialness of this country’s National Park System. We hope the American people register their disappointment in the actions of these legislators.?
The previous rule, in place since the Reagan administration, allowed registered gun owners to bring non-concealed, unloaded weapons into parks.
– Julie Cart"
Hap my above post refers to a post that was removed, it referred to the link in my posting about a different bill from 2000 that the Internet still has rumors flying just changing the year. See http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/taxreturns.asp
And the Anti Gun People will try every way in the world to keep us out of firearms. They can’t ban them now, but they can tax them, regulate ammo,amount type etc. They can regulate magazine capacity etc.
The battle isn’t over, its just begun.
Eric